The Kennesaw State University Office of Research launched four Research Communities, which represent an interdisciplinary infrastructure that has the resources to provide meaningful research experiences and workforce preparedness to our students and invite corporate and community partners to work with us toward this goal. These Research Communities below were identified following an internal examination of the university's research strengths.
The Office of Research is proud to announce this year's faculty Research Champions!
These faculty researchers will develop and lead interdisciplinary research cluster
teams, assess funding opportunities, and support grant applications. Champions are
expected to build and support successful research teams for each track, including
other faculty researchers and students. Research success is measured by subject-specific
research outcomes, typically external grant support, publications, exhibits or performances.
Sustainable Communities
Dr. Mario Bretfeld
Assistant Professor of Biology
Born and raised in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Dr. Mario Brefeld studied Landscape Ecology
at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. During an exchange year in Colorado,
he studied aspen (Populus tremuloides) regeneration in response to different disturbances,
including fire and conifer mortality due to mountain pine beetles. After graduating
in 2010, he returned to Colorado to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Northern Colorado
in the Franklin lab. His dissertation research included long-term aspen community
changes in and around Rocky Mountain National Park, responses to the mountain pine
beetle outbreak, and resource sharing through the connected root system of aspen (i.e.
clonal integration). He received his Ph.D. in Biological Education in 2014.
After graduation, Dr. Bretfeld moved to Panama as part of a post-doctoral fellowship
with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the University of Wyoming.
In Panama, he worked primarily in the Agua Salud project and measured plant water
use (i.e. transpiration) in regrowing tropical forests of different ages, as well
as in a cattle-pasture and a coffee plantation. From April 2017 to July 2019, he lived
and worked in Laramie as a post-doctoral fellow in the Ewers lab at the University
of Wyoming. Since August 2019, he has served as assistant professor of biology in
the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Kennesaw State University.
Dr. Mahyar Amirgholy
Associate Professor of Civil Engineering
Dr. Mahyar Amirgholy is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering in the Southern
Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Kennesaw State University
and a Research Affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Prior to joining KSU, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Civil and Environmental
Engineering Department at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental
Engineering with a focus on Transportation Systems from the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. Dr. Amirgholy is a recipient of the Council of University Transportation
Centers (CUTC) Milton Pikarsky Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Science
and Technology. His research primarily focuses on the modeling and optimization of
large-scale transportation systems.
Innovative Creativity
Dr. Victoria Lagrange
Assistant Professor of English
Dr. Victoria Lagrange is an Assistant Professor of Game Narrative in the Department
of English at Kennesaw State University.
Her scholarly interests revolve around the examination of novel storytelling formats and their impact on audience reception and participatory culture. Dr. Lagrange’s scholarship includes multiple published articles, including analyses of the transmedia expansions of Bill Willingham’s Fables, the intricate relationship between violence, empathy, and decision-making in interactive fiction, and the study of user reception of video games. Her recent publications include work in Behavioral and Brain Sciences and PloS ONE.
Additionally, she serves as the director of the Game Narrative Lab at Kennesaw State University, where her team’s focus is on the creation and evaluation of prosocial video games. Their latest game, Corporation, Inc., recently achieved recognition by winning an international critical thinking games competition.
Dr. Jeremy Speed-Schwartz
Assistant Professor of Digital Animation
Applied Technologies
Dr. Parth Bhavsar
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
Dr. Parth Bhavsar is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Kennesaw State University. His research interests include intelligent
transportation systems (ITS), transportation data analytics, connected & automated
vehicle technology (CVT), and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs).
Dr. Bhavsar received his Ph.D. in 2013 and his M.S. in 2006 from Clemson University,
South Carolina. He also has experience in the private sector in developing transportation
engineering and planning solutions, specifically traffic micro-simulation projects.
Dr. Taeyeong Choi
Assistant Professor of Information Technology
Dr. Taeyeong Choi is an Assistant Professor of Information Technology at Kennesaw
State University. Leading the Learning and SEnsing Research (LaSER) laboratory, his
research primarily focuses on designing novel machine learning and robotics methodologies
for practical applications domains, such as agriculture.
His research involves the development of data-driven approaches to construct precise environmental models, addressing challenges posed by limited available observations. Dr. Choi’s work is built upon cutting-edge advancements in computer vision, reinforcement learning, and robotics technologies.
Prior to joining KSU, Dr. Choi gained valuable research experience as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Davis, under the guidance of Dr. Xin Liu, and at the University of Lincoln, UK, supervised by Dr. Grzegorz Cielniak.
Health and Wellness
Dr. Weiwei Chen
Assistant Professor of Economics
Dr. Weiwei Chen is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Coles College of Business. She specializes in empirical analyses in health economics and health services research. Her work has covered the effect of health insurance, changes in health care utilization and expenditures, child health, and issues of vaccine uptake. Her recent research focuses on substance use, hospital care outcomes, and health care in correctional facilities. Dr. Chen has served as principal investigator, co-investigator, and consultant on research projects funded by local and federal government, international organizations, and private entities.
Dr. Garrett Hester
Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Dr. Garrett Hester joined the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management
in 2016. He completed his undergraduate work in Health and Human Performance at Northeastern
State University and earned his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Health and Human
Performance at Oklahoma State University. He is a 2021 NIA Butler-Williams Scholar
and member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Southeast ACSM chapter,
and National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Dr. Hester's research interests include the effects of aging, fatigue, and resistance
training on neuromuscular physiology and physical function. Also, females' specific
muscle health and physiology, and sex differences are of interest in these topics.
